Black Paisley Tele

[Patrick from Davis]

Neck:
Warmoth Pro
Gonçalo alves/Gonçalo alves
SS6100 frets
Black binding, black block inlay
59 Roundback
Cleaned up Earvana nut
Planet Waves Tuners

Body
Fender FSR Black Paisley Body
Roadhouse Specials Tele Pickups
Neck Bling by Doug "DangerousR6"

I followed =CB='s advice from way back when that Gonçalo was a great neck wood to roll off some to the edge of the tele sound.  He was right, again.  Thing sounds great, very rock, nicely balanced to be a "loud" kinda guitar.  I really love the Roadhouse Pickups as well.  The neck pickups are just so much fun, and I never liked neck pickups before getting a set of pickups from Ken.  The odd thing about this guitar is the neck pickup is right under the 1/4 node, so the harmonic from the 5th fret is almost not there if only the neck pickup is on.  I modeled the neck after the jazz bass design of the blocks and binding, and I think it came out nice.  It is hard to get it to show up in pictures with out a very light background, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Patrick

The front

The back

 

[leo12.]

Very nice buid very unique, lots of good components there, always like to see G/A never
seen black blocks & bound on G/A nice match for the Paisley. :icon_thumright:

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Black paisley is a cool look. But the intonation looks odd. Is it a alternative tuning?  :icon_scratch:

 

[Cagey]

Very fine piece of work!

I'm curious what you mean by "cleaned up" Earvana nut.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

The Earvana makes the intonation different, looks a bit goofy, but it does sound nice.
Patrick

 

[Cagey]

Black paisley is a cool look. But the intonation looks odd. Is it a alternative tuning?  :icon_scratch:

The Earvana makes the intonation different, looks a bit goofy, but it does sound nice.

I had a similar result with the one guitar I put an Earvana on.

They're no panacea, but they do work to some degree and I'd use them more often if they didn't think that for some reason casting the nut in a slightly different mold using ancient technology made it worth $35 more than a standard nut. It's a prime example of abuse of the patent system.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Cagey, we have disagreed on this point more than enough times.  I like playing open chords, and they help there.  Also I get them for 28 bucks, while pricier than a regular nut, I am willing to pay for something that makes it sound nicer for me.  It's a small price for something that makes the instrument more enjoyable for the end user.
Patrick

 

[Cagey]

I don't think we're disagreeing. I agree that they help intonation. I wasn't convinced before I tried one, but once I did I can hear it at least as well as anyone else. It's not a major improvement, but it's certainly discernable under certain scenarios, so it's a Good Thing to do.

My argument has since been the price. There's no difference in manufacturing cost between that design and a standard nut, so all guitars should have them. The technology or knowledge or secret or whatever you want to call it has existed for a long time. Why don't all guitars have them? Because we have a broken patent system.

Earvana or Ernie Ball, depending on who you want to cheerlead for, managed to get a patent issued inappropriately. There is substantial prior art, and the solution is obvious to anyone trained in the art. The device, method and implementation fail fundamental tests for patentability. Yet, one was issued and the cost of having it invalidated is too high. So, it still exists. That artificial monopoly causes the price for the things to be excessive and rewards subterfuge.

For the difference the thing makes, I'll live without them rather than reward malicious opportunism. The patent expiration date isn't very far out anyway, so I'll wait until then and get them for the $4 they should cost.


Addendum:

Does anyone know if EB is selling these things in the aftermarket? I've always thought the only reason the fought patent priority in the first place was to prevent Earvana from suing them for using the idea on their own instruments. The aftermarket value just isn't that high. Seems to me the entire award from Earvana was only in the $800K range, which covered all their production to date. I wonder now if they just wanted to slap Earvana down regardless of whether anyone used the design or not.

 

[mayfly]

Nice guitar.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I'm curious what you mean by "cleaned up" Earvana nut.

Didn't see this question...  On the nuts that Earvana sells, they have a sort of key like profile that sits on top of the fret board.  The pieces that extend out beyond where the string sits I find annoying.  So I file them off and make the profile of the shelf follow that of the "corrected" intonation.  I can nicely round off any corners and make them so that they don't grab shirts and so on.  I just "clean up" the excess, and I like it better that way.
Patrick

 

[stankybudz]

Good lookin axe! arty07:

 

[DangerousR6]

That's just frikin' awesome Patrick, the neck wood and black just pop... :headbang:

 

[vic108]

Very Very Very NICE!!!

 

[Patrick from Davis]

It is a really fun one to play.  The Gonçalo alves neck tone just really works with the Tele sound.  =CB= nailed it with that suggestion.  I want to put a T90 in there to see how it plays with that.  But I am really happy with this one.  From looks to sound, it works.
Patrick